Woven wall hangings
April 13, 2012
Firstly I need to say sorry to my students and Sew Creative. Several essential items have escaped my requirements list. I am really sorry for the trouble that caused today and for thinking they had gone missing at the shop end of things. Folishly I assumed that as I hadn't edited the list everything would still be on the list, apparently not. I will be fixing it when I get home.Here are a few pictures of todays class and despite the errors on my list you can see they produced some very good work. In particular there are some really good fabric choices here. I love the purple and grey combination and the shades of brown. Right now I will get back to my sewing but I do have some pictures of yesterdays class to share later.
Cushion cover done
April 12, 2012
I've got another of my projects finished, the long stitch cushion cover. While I struggle a lot with most hand work long stitch on a large hole canvas works fine, well provided I don't do too much. This has been a year in progress as my travel sewing. I have been looking forward to having it done, I need a cushion when I use my sewezi table in the van. Now I can have one.The turning twenty has progressed again today, I have 3/4 of the sub blocks made. I should get the blocks finished tomorrow and maybe start putting them together. I foolishly forgot to take any pictures of the class today. We were working on free motion quilting today and I think it went well. I asked one of todays students to leave her sample to show the class tomorrow and I will try and get a picture of it then. After my early start I am really flagging. It didn't seem too bad getting up early, probably becuase I had gone to bed early and watched a film. Now though I am paying for it. At least I have a later start tomorrow as my camp site is very close to the venue.
Last update from the weekend
April 11, 2012
I didn't manage to finish all ,y projects ;last weekend. I worked out that my jumbo turning twenty has over 1000 pieces so it is taking a bit longer than the others.i was also trying to gwt some racing in but the weather didn't want to play. The cushion cover is very close to done now as that was easy to pick up and put down, so maybe this trip will see it done. i've also brought another project with me incase I run out of things to do, but more on that if I get to it.I am currently near Stanstead. I've got an early but better start to get to Sew Creative to teach tomorrow. I've been looking forward to this trip since last year. I met some great students then and I hope there will be more this time. If you are in the area, Norfolk, there are still a couple of places on some of the classes, call the shop for more details. The other thing about this shop is their location. It's great! The site has a petting farm and several craft shops. There is also a very nice tea room. Even better it is just down the road from a lovely little campsite, so I can park up in comfort and just walk to work each day. Lot's of time to sew too. I should try and get some sleep before the early start.
Progress report
April 7, 2012
Things are going pretty well. Speed 6 is now finished, bound and everything. It's folded up in the top corner of the picture. I am now working on my second project of the weekend, Turning Twenty book 8. This quilt I started when I was at Quiltfest, on the hand cranked Singer, but I am going to work on it this weekend with the Husqvarna. I do have another van project that will be all[ human powered but this one I just want done. I decided I wanted mine a bit bigger so instead of 20 fat quarters I am using 35 fat quarters. So instead of pressing 40 strips I've just done 70 and cut 210 pieces for the next step. As you can see I can get my cutting board onto the end of my sewezi table, but for pressing I do have to move to the ironing board to the draining board as the iron has a very short lead. Still I think it is a pretty good sewing set up. It may also explain why I don't understand the complaints of lack of space in classes. A 6 foot table looks very spacious to me. I have to admit I suffer terrible table envy when I see other people's studios. Anyway, I still have a quilt to make, I should get back to it.
Speed 6
April 6, 2012
As you can see I am making good progress with Speed 6. It's great havimng power in the van so I can use my Sapphire and the sewezi table. In fact I have a sewing room, a dinning room and a bedroom in this van all at the same time. Fun fun fun.
What have I got planned for the long weekend
April 5, 2012
That would be two sewing machines and a Sewezi table. Hopefully Speed 6 and Turning Twenty 8 will get done this weekend, maybe also a rug and a cushion cover, but only if it rains.
Mimram Quilter
April 4, 2012I am standing in a very long queue at the post office so it seems like the ideal time to catch up on blogging. Mostly I've been worning at the longarm on customer quilts but Monday I went to Mimram Quilter in Welwyn to give a talk. It worked out to be a very good night. I was luky enough to have two helpers with me and some one from the group so set up was quicker than usual. Also having the extra help means I am much less tired when I start and I can spend more time chatting at the end. It was great. I can't believe how faast they got my van loaded at the end either.I did overrun quite badly though. I am normallyu quite good at judging the length of the talk but one lady saw some quilts I wasn't going to include and liked them, so in they went. I did ask if they wanted me to stop on time, but as you might expect, they wanted more quilts. All in all I had a great time and I hope the group did too.
Cats and copyright, where did the fun go?
April 1, 2012For me this has been a very very long week. It started badly with one of my cat needing (and wanting) to be put to sleep. I’m glad he agreed, and I am glad he isn’t suffering, but he is missed and it wasn’t a good start to a week.
Now before you read on, I know this will read like and April fool, but sadly it isn’t. I can’t believe that I am having to put this on, but this whole situation does read like a very bad joke.
Rather than then immersing my self in quilting I’ve mostly been studying law. I’m not a lawyer and I really have no desire to be one but I needed to find out how copyright laws effect quilting. So far the answer is, we don’t know and this is a really grey area. Those of you who buy a pattern and some fabric, make a quilt and sling it on the bed, sofa or friends bed are fine. Carry on the industry loves you and all is well in the world. Once you break out of this into publishing things do seem to get a bit more confused/muddy, and by publishing I do include publishing on the internet.
Now a quick side line before I go any further. Things on the internet are not copyright free. I can’t tell you how many times in the last week I have seen people saying that anything on the web is in the public domain and free for anyone to use. It isn’t. Content on the internet belongs to whoever wrote/drew/created it, and unless they specifically say this item is free for you to use, it isn’t. This means I still own the text and images on this blog, (except your comments which are published with your permission) if you wanted to use them for something you need to ask, and for what it’s worth you will usually get permission. I’ve asked many people if I can use their images, mostly for quilts and I’ve been thrilled by how lovely they have been about it. Usually offering far more than I asked for. Try it you may find yourself a new friend. The flip side of this is that when you post anything on the internet you are claiming you own the copyright and if you don’t you are opening yourself up to legal action.
This is where we get to what is giving me the headache, who owns the copyright to the image of my quilts. For a few I can answer that question, I do. Prometheus, Dragon 1 and Greek Fossils are mine. The fabric was produced by Heide Stoll-Weber and she is happy that I own the finished quilts. For the rest of my quilts, who knows. There has been a case where a fabric designer has claimed that she retains rights to the images of a quilt if it contains her fabrics, and she was prepared to take legal action to defend this right. The people she felt were violating her right did cease what they were doing which prevented the case going to court. For me, that’s a shame, I need a judge to rule on this to make it clear what everyone’s rights are. Unfortunately as it stands this leaves the area grey and people like me making show quilts, writing books and designing patterns in a very difficult position. If I don’t own the copyright to my quilts I can’t use them in books, patterns, web sites. I can’t reproduce them on anything, no even my business cards. As a longarm quilter I can’t photograph customer quilts and show them on my website to illustrate the work I do. I can’t show pictures of my talks or my classes. If I don’t own the rights to the quilts image I also can’t pass those rights on to others, like quilt shows. Crazy, yes. Worrying, very.
As I said, for most hobby quilters nothing has changed. You can buy you fabric, make a quilt and use it. If you are branching outside of that you might want to take a look at the legal situation. I am still waiting on a few more people getting back to me, but I have a nasty feeling the answer will be we don’t know. Although even if they come back and say I own the copyrights to my quilts am I in the clear? The problem with the law is it takes money to defend yourself, even if you are completely in the right. If I want to keep using commercial fabrics in my quilts I need to start saving a lot of money to defend any potential law suit, and unfortunately I don’t earn that sort of money. For me just knowing there are fabric designers out there who believe they own the rights to my finished quilt may mean I have to change how I work. No more student quilts in my books (even if the designers would settle for being credited what are the chances of knowing full details on every fabric). Less real fabric images in my patterns and books. More samples made with hand dyed and solid print fabrics. I would love to hear from any lawyer who could offer a solid solution to this problem, but I won’t be holding my breath. For now my pattern samples are being made with safe fabrics, hand dyed by me and others I know. It lets me sleep at night.
I have designs waiting to be made up that use Moda pre-cuts. It’s something that had been requested but students but now I have the fabric and I can’t use it. I’m not going to buy more non commercial fabric to make a pattern that will sell the same commercial fabric I now can’t use, that would be insane. I have patterns that use large and novelty prints, I am not going to print my own versions of those either, just to sell fabric I still can’t use.
I really would like to see a solid resolution to this situation. I have a lot of fabric here which seems to now be so much junk. I think the simplest and safest solution would be for fabric manufacturers to publish a statement as to what we can do with their fabrics. With the answer coming back that this is a grey area of law we need someone to make it clear, and I don’t think any pattern designer, writer or show organizer has the spare money to take it to court for them, and yes at the end of the day it is at least as much for the fabric manufacturers as anyone else. If the designers and artists can’t / won’t use the fabric the fabric companies lose the advertising and promotion that brings with it. If quilt shows are forced to ban commercial fabrics to protect themselves the fabric companies lose out more than anyone else. So what we need is for the companies to give us the rights to our finished quilts. The same rights any other artist has to use the image of their completed art work. I think any company who will do this will gain a lot by it as their fabrics will also then be safe to use and right now I am happy to work with fabrics from any company who will do this, I suspect I am not the only one. Anyone want to step up and lead the way?
Farncombe – Art Quilts by Numbers weekend retreat
March 23, 2012
Better late than never right? I’ve been pretty busy since I taught at Farncome Estate but now I’ve got a bit of breathing room I really do want to share my pictures from the trip. The venue was recommended to me by one of my regular students. She also recommended me to them. The booking had to be made a long time in advance to get the dates they wanted so this really felt like it was a long time coming. Residential courses are one of the things I do that can be the most amazing. When people have longer to work on a given technique they achieve disproportionately more. I think a two day residential class can achieve as much as three or four day workshops. On the other hand if there are problems with the venue it can be terrible.
In this case it worked really well. Jane (my regular student) had been to this venue many times, and she is right it’s amazing. They had had a staff change between quilting classes so hadn’t grasped how much space we need. However, having seen us work they will be giving my classes a much bigger room in future. In fact every query, problem or request was dealt with at once with real care and concern. I was very very impressed with the staff. I’ve been brought up to believe that you can judge quality far better when you see how people handle things going wrong, and here any problem was handled very well indeed.
We started the class after dinner on Friday. I decided to take a risk and go straight in with theory. I wouldn’t normally do this but there were several factors that made it seem like the right way to go on this course. The simplest being I was using a projector and it is much easier to black out a room at night. Also once I had used the projector I could move it out of the way, which would give us more room to work. Of course trying to talk to people in a darkened room after a good dinner (and drinks, first one free) late in the evening after they have travelled all day does have it’s problems. So I let the students know that if they fell asleep I would go through it again in the morning and we got down to work. Amazingly they all managed to concentrate and got it pretty much on the first time through. Very impressive, especially for the non computer literate members of the class. By the time we had gone through the theory it was technically bed time. However I take the view that I want my students to get as much as possible out of their classes so, when I am doing a multi-day class I am happy to stay on in the class outside of official teaching hours if the students are happy for me to work on my project when they don’t need me. They were, so most of them decided to get started straight away. The photographs alongside are what was achieved before bed on the first night. Impressive isn’t it. When they started most students were sceptical that they would finish one piece in the weekend, I felt two were completely possible. Looks like I should be right to me 
Before security had a chance to throw us out we headed to bed. I think that was about 11pm. Jane being an old hand at this venue said there was no point being at breakfast first thing because there would be queue. Why queue when you could be quilting? So we agreed to meet at 7.30am and get sewing again. Strangely my alarm didn’t go off, but as Jane had been going to give me a lift to our room (not really needed but rather nice) she phoned and woke me up. Just as well we had planned the early start. I guess it is also a good review of my accommodation. I slept pretty well, and my only real complaint was the heat. Both my bedroom and the classroom were very warm we had to turn off all the heating, but I’d rather have that than freeze overnight.
It’s always a surprise how much people can get done when they are focused. Not having to worry about cooking, cleaning, phones and family really does make a huge difference not just to your feeling of peace but also to the quality of your work. While my students were getting a few extra hours I started on my cow head sample. I didn’t realise at the time but I was working on the scaled down pattern Tet had made as a test. Having worked on it, it’s too small I suppose it was good to give it a proper test right?
I took this photograph on the way down to breakfast standing just outside my teaching room. Isn’t it fantastic. Bear in mind this was the beginning of March, weather here was still very wintery, in fact we not only had rain but snow, but this just looks wonderful.
I offer a choice of two patterns for this course, a rose and a swan. The swan was the pattern I chose, and I feel it is a perfect starter patter, but my students asked for a choice and they wanted a flower. I took a photograph of as a rose growing in my garden right next to my bin and produced this pattern. Unfortunately it turned out to be very popular. Why unfortunate? It’s trickier than the swan. The main reason I think people struggle is that the rose is bigger than life size. People are much better at judging images that are smaller than the real thing, then ones that are bigger. I’ve had to get used to catching students when they loose heart. They all seem to have a moment when they are sure their rose will never look like a rose. The cure? Take a photograph, and it is suddenly clear. This is why I think it is just a matter of scale.
Ah, now you might notice this project looks a bit more complex and more advanced than the others. This is Lizzie, Jane’s ferret. It is an amazing photograph and will be a great quilt but it’s a lot of work. It was very helpful having this quilt in the class. I used it as an example of how tricky images can become and how seductive it is to tackle these images. Jane started it a while ago in regular classes but realised it really needed a few days solid work to progress it. Rolling it up wasn’t doing it any good and between sessions she was forgetting where she was in the project. There are more pictures of Lizzie further down this post. Working on this did turn out to be good for Jane as well she managed to get a little piece of fabric that was the perfect pink for a ferret nose from one of the ladies making roses.
The next few photographs are all from Saturday night (yes the pictures are pretty much in chronological order). You can see the classroom is pretty full, everyone wanted to get back to work after dinner and I think the progress is really very good. Most students had a quilted picture by this point. Despite everyone having the same pattern and in several cases the same fabrics they all come out with quite different images. I especially like to see all the different characters of swan that people produce.
Now we have a couple of very different roses. Looks like they are both waiting to be quilted to me. So I would guess that they are peoples second quilts. Yes, by Saturday evening the students were all doing well and working on their second projects. Some chose to do the other of my patterns, some did the same pattern but in a different technique and more were working on totally unique designs from their own photographs. This is the other thing I really enjoy about teaching longer classes. When I have more time with the students we have the chance to look at images they want to work with and see if we can generate patterns from them. Some of the photographs will be great but most will be less than great. Unless I have a lot of time with a class I can’t go through this sort of thing with every student.
So about that ferret being a cautionary tale. It didn’t entirely work, but I think this particular quilt will be worth the effort in the end. This is one of Jane’s friends I wonder if that is where the ambition comes from?
Ah, one of my less computer confident sticking together her patten, having processed it and enlarged it on the computer. No she didn’t find it easy, but she put in the effort and has a full pattern to take home with her. I can see her using the skills again as well. Unfortunately with big patterns the easiest place to put them together is the floor. It’s not good for your knees or back, but it does support large pieces very well. I generally have to work in a much smaller space than this and trust me, it’s not easy, it is possible.
Here is my project Sunday morning. As you can see my cow was coming along pretty well. I had arrived with the basic pattern and this is how far I got in the evenings and mornings while also keeping an eye on my students. I was quite pleased with that.
Here we have a swan made with the same technique as the cow I was working on. It is a different method than the one initially used, and it is a great starting pattern to get to grips with a different technique. It does give a very different look to the swan, which is also a nice illustration of why you might use the different techniques in different situations.
Here you can see this student has two completed quilts. This photograph was either taken last thing on Saturday night or just before breakfast on Sunday. She went on to work on a pattern from her photographs. I think that is pretty good going.
Ah now this is clearly Sunday morning. I liked this desk because I think it really sums up the whole course. Computer through to finished work, with tools and fabric scraps as well. Perfect.
The class ends with lunch. Which is in the same building as the main reception, so it was a good time to also hand in the feedback forms. Of course we weren’t that organised so I went back after the students had left to do the boring office work. As I was walking back to my car at the classroom I thought I would get some more pictures. This one is looking down over the roof of reception. As you can see there are a lot of trees on site, I think it felt rather like a university in a wood on a hill. It was far prettier than most universities but it’s split into several buildings much like a university.
This is the building the classroom was in, I think it was called the coach house. If any of my students is reading this can can remember please feel free to comment. Our room was on the ground floor on the far side of the building.
Looking further up the hill you can see some of the accommodation blocks. This is where I was staying and it was just a short walk down some steps to the classroom. I think there are also teaching rooms in these blocks.
Finally this picture was taken on the road out of the site. Photographs never really do justice to this sort of view, but I tried. As you may have noticed, I loved teaching here and my students were great. With the slightly small room it could have been terrible but everyone was very helpful and took care of each other. I was very impressed. I am going to be teaching here again. The next class is the end of August when I will be teaching people how to make my quilt “Where is the North Star?” I think there are still a couple of places left on this if you would like to come and join us. I say us because a lot of the students from this course decided they would come back in August, for me that it is the best recommendation you can have, and I did want to leave publicising the class to give them a chance to sign up. I think they’ve had enough time now, and I know most of them are coming, so as well as promising you a great venue, I can tell you there will be plenty of fun people doing the class too. You will have to put up with me as a tutor, but it’s only a couple of days After that I have two more dates booked in 2013, but we haven’t made a firm decision on classes yet. I think one of them will be a wholecloth class. If you have requests for subjects for the other class let me know and I hope to see some of you there.The Farncombe web site is here.
Sitges – gallery
March 22, 2012
As well as teaching in Sitges I also had a gallery exhibition of a few of my quilts. It was in a building I am told was a fishermans house. It’s on a very narrow street in what I assume is the old town.
Before going I had no idea how big this show is. Approximately 12,000 people bought tickets to see the exhibitions! The traders were in tents on the seafront. These aren’t grotty tents mind you, these are quite post with proper floors and good lighting. Entry to the vendors is free.
If you want to see the quilts, be it the galleries from the artists or the competition quilts you need to buy a ticket. I think the ticket was 10 Euros, and it is a wristband that lets you visit all the exhibitions as many times as you like during the four day show.
The exhibits are spread around the town, and I was lucky enough to be the middle of three that were close together. The first was the main building where the classes were held and where bought tickets. In the same venue was an exhibition ofBaltimore Album quilts by Elly Sienkiewicz. From there I was the next stop on the tour and boy did that mean I was busy.
The pictures apparently don’t really capture it. I guess I was busier when the room was full and when we had the huge queue outside I couldn’t have got out of the door.
I heard from my stewards, two lovely hard working young ladies, that Thursday was quiet. Apparently Friday and Saturday the days I was working were much busier. In fact I apparently had a 30 minute queue waiting to come in and see my work. That is an amazing ego boost so thank you very much to everyone who waited so long. We did have to restrict the number of people coming in as the gallery was quite small and an unusual shape. We really didn’t need any accidents to people or quilts.
From my gallery you carried on up the road to Carol Taylors gallery. I popped in one night on the way home and I loved what I found. If you aren’t familiar with her work do go and take a look on her website here. It turns out we share not only similar tastes in food and quilts but also in fabric she is another Heide Stoll-Weber fan. She even made me feel good about how much I spend on hand dyed fabric. Turns out I am a complete amateur.
